Defiant (Timeline B)
Defiant was a powerful cruiser and the lead ship of the Defiant-class, built using partially extra-galactic technology. Her shield generator was far more advanced than any other in known space, and the energy fields it generated were powerful enough to sustain a direct hit from a superlaser at 2/3 the power of the Death Star. The Defiant was not invincible, though; her shield generator could be destroyed by physical weapons, such as torpedoes, which would bypass the energy shields and destroy them from the source. To increase Defiant's effectiveness in battle she was equipped with torpedo launchers instead of turbolasers; between this and the ship's vulnerability to torpedoes, the Defiant-class cruisers are ironically well-suited to destroying each other. Involvement Defiant was built sometime before 24 ABY in a hidden shipyard, designed and payed for via unknown means by then-Imperial General Phalanx. When the ship was finished is uncertain, but she was brought out of drydock in 24 ABY by her designer, now a New Republic Admiral, to combat the rogue Durasteel and his dangerously modified Super Star Destroyer, Vindicator. Though Vindicator was destroyed before the Admiral could use Defiant on her, the ship remained under his command for the next several decades. During the Caedus crisis, Defiant was used in support of Resistance forces. Her role was limited, but one of her best-known battles took place here, when she crippled the Death Star III by literally ramming it. Once the crisis was over, more-or-less, the Admiral hid Defiant in a cluster of black holes beyond the outer rim so that her extra-galactic technology would never be found. Unfortunately, when the Ex-Senator Duren led the Admiral into a trap and removed large sections of his armorsuit for the purpose of building a suit of his own, he discovered the legendary starship's location in the armor's computer banks. Retrieving the vessel, he used it as his flagship and as the backbone of his private fleet. When Duren joined the Golden Empire's forces, the Defiant-class cruiser was put into mass-production. Soon dozens of the ship existed, much to Phalanx's frustration (he had never wanted more than one in the galaxy). Eventually an operation by the Republic's 144th Marine Legion was able to secure about half of the Golden Empire Defiants, as well as the plans upon which they were built, and the Republic began producing the cruisers as well. Several years later, at the Battle of Denon, both the Golden Empire and Republic suffered the crippling or destruction all of their Defiants, with the exception of GES Sorrow. When Sorrow was destroyed only hours later at the Andilos Nebula, the galaxy had not a single operational Defiant. The RSS Defiant was initially left dead in space as the Republic scrambled to refit outdated ships, such as the Venator-class cruiser, in order to bolster its all-but-eliminated Navy. However, once the Golden Empire was defeated and the Rakatan threat emerged, the Defiant was put into drydock and repaired as quickly as possible. It was restored to operational capacity in time to enter the Second Battle of Denon, where - once more under the command of Admiral Phalanx - it was drawn into a wormhole, re-emerging in an entirely different galaxy. The circumstances of the ship's return are still being investigated, but return she did, albeit over four thousand years after she vanished in 4127 ABY. In this new time period, Phalanx noted that Defiant was no longer an invincible dreadnought, though she was still powerful enough to serve as a frontline cruiser. He located the other, still-crippled ships of the Defiant-class, hidden after the disappearance of Phalanx by Admiral Dane, and began repairing them. By 4128 ABY, he had twelve of them operational, and used them as the backbone of the Navy of the newly-founded Fourth Republic. When war broke out later that year between the Republic and the CIUS, Defiant served through one final crisis as Admiral Phalanx's flagship. She and her sisters were the most powerful cruisers in the Fourth Republic for the first year of the war, serving as flagships in fleets composed largely of aging frigates. However, in mid-4129, the new Aurora-class cruiser entered production, proving to be more powerful, more efficient, and more balanced than the aging, torpedo-laden Defiants. The ancient ships were gradually shuffled to less important roles by their brand-new, Aurora-class successors. Defiant herself, however, remained Phalanx's flagship, as the Admiral was quite attached to the old vessel. After the conclusion of the war, however, she was at last destroyed only minutes after the Admiral who commanded her was mortally wounded. Some still-unknown entity created a black hole that devoured the ship, though nearly all of the crew was able to evacuate thanks to the timely - and still inexplicable - appearance of the ancient Venator-class starship Hornet. Several weeks later, the severely-damaged bridge of the starship emerged from a mysterious wormhole in Republic space. She carried aboard her the final project of the late Admiral, Athena, who was soon found by a man named Swayvil. Swayvil took the entire bridge with him as somewhat of a souvenir, though it was later damaged even further when Freedom Station crashed into the planet it orbited. Combat Capabilities The RSS Defiant was unusual in that for ship-to-ship combat she was armed with nothing but torpedo launchers; not a single turbolaser was mounted on her hull. This allowed Defiant to completely ignore an enemy ship's energy shields, penetrating straight to the hull. In fact, it was quite common for Defiant to destroy an enemy without even lowering her shields. Defiant's hangar was capable of carrying a wing of starfighters (72 ships), the same complement as an Imperial Star Destroyer. Her fighter complement varied through the years; in 24 ABY she carried modified Clone Wars craft, but by 58 ABY she was carrying refitted X-wings. In 4128 ABY she was armed with more modern craft. The shield generator was of an incredibly advanced design; turbolasers were, for all practical purposes, useless against Defiant. However, ion blasts, missiles and torpedoes could still bypass the energy shields and destroy the generator itself. All-in-all, Defiant, though only about 1.8 kilometers long and roughly the size of an Imperial Star Destroyer, was quite capable of engaging Super Star Destroyers and even some superweapons in battle. Category:Timeline B Category:Out-of-date Article Category:Fourth Republic Category:Third Republic